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Wed, 13 Dec 2017 15:48:23 +0000en-UShourly1The Monk’s Kettle to Lower Prices and Change Menu Structurehttp://monkskettle.com/monks-kettle-lower-prices-change-menu-structure/
Tue, 07 Nov 2017 04:02:42 +0000http://monkskettle.com/?p=1719On our very first beer list when we opened in 2007, we had a section called “Grampa’s Suds” in which we offered $2 cans of Olympia. The aim was to offer, not just a beer for every palate, but also one for every sized wallet. Over time we decided there wasn’t much value in keeping […]

]]>On our very first beer list when we opened in 2007, we had a section called “Grampa’s Suds” in which we offered $2 cans of Olympia. The aim was to offer, not just a beer for every palate, but also one for every sized wallet. Over time we decided there wasn’t much value in keeping a cheap, low-quality corporate beer on the list and we dropped that section. But now, on the verge of our ten-year anniversary and reflecting on our role as a neighborhood tavern, we want to revisit the core of the idea.

Over the last decade, just as the personal cost of living has gone up precipitously in SF, so has the cost of business. While there are well-known increases like wages (53% higher now than when we opened), there are many lesser-known expenses that continue to rise as well. As our costs increased over the years, they were passed along as higher and higher menu prices to the point at which we find ourselves today.

Now that we are about to celebrate ten years on this corner of the Mission, it’s a good time to reflect upon our own mission in the neighborhood. Our goal as a craft beer and wine tavern is to be a fun gathering place for those who live and work here. And while we are proud of the atmosphere and the overall product we’ve created, we need to ensure that our pricing is accessible to our clientele, and we feel the need to improve in this area. And so, on November 6th, we are implementing a variety of changes to our beer and food menus that features lower pricing overall.

On the beer side, the most significant adjustment will be a price reduction on all our draft pints, with our most expensive ones dropping $1. Other drafts will also be adjusted at varying degrees, but more than anything, expect all our Pales, IPAs, Ambers, etc, to be priced less than they are now. Additionally, we will Grampa’s-Suds-ify our bottle list: lowering prices overall, but also offering a bottle/can option under $6 for all of the styles that we are able to (without sacrificing quality).

On the culinary side, we have refined and simplified our food menu to better offer the full range of experiences we provide. We have always been both a bar and a restaurant and our menu reflects that: we offer gourmet pub food ranging from Snacks & Shareables to the full complement of Salads, Burgers & Sandwiches as well as Entrees, always with the option of suggested beer pairings. Our Snacks & Shareables section of the menu will now feature past favorites, like a housemade pickle jar and fried oysters. The sandwich section will be supplemented with the new additions of a Tuna Nicoise sandwich and the Monk’s Lamb Burger. Prices in this sandwich section will all be lowered and additionally, to increase the range of options and price, they will now be offered a la carte (fries/mixed greens are optional). More than anything, we want to meet our customers where they are and whatever their needs today: whether for a quick bite or a drink, or for a full meal among friends, whether in our cozy tavern with us and the full service experience, or in the comforts of their own home by ordering to-go. We think this menu allows us to do all of those things.

We opened the Monk’s Kettle in 2007 with the intent of being a neighborhood tavern and we feel in large part that we have succeeded. The challenge before us is to bring you that same quality of experience and product, despite rising costs, at a price that is more accessible. With ten years of experience under our belts, we are confident in our ability to be efficient in our practices and could not be happier that we can offer a better value for our clientele. We appreciate the support we have received over the last ten years and hope to serve our neighbors better than ever in the decades to come.

]]>Left Behind in the Back of the House…http://monkskettle.com/left-behind-in-the-back-of-the-house/
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 21:16:12 +0000http://monks-kettle-staging.flywheelsites.com/?p=1537The minimum wage hike that was approved by voters in Nov 2014 was the final nail in the coffin of our sister restaurant The Abbot’s Cellar and we said as much at the time (even if it was misspoken and/or misunderstood). To be fair, at that point the coffin had a fair amount of nails […]

]]>The minimum wage hike that was approved by voters in Nov 2014 was the final nail in the coffin of our sister restaurant The Abbot’s Cellar and we said as much at the time (even if it was misspoken and/or misunderstood). To be fair, at that point the coffin had a fair amount of nails in it already (I can tackle those subjects another day), but we foresaw that the passage of Proposition J (Minimum Wage Ordinance) would squeeze the industry over the next few years and force a lot of closings. We decided to get out early and get back to the bedrock of The Monk’s Kettle. The greatest tragedy of it all however was that due to the Ordinance’s language and implementation, the problem of wage inequality would be exacerbated rather than solved.

When you ask a server or bartender how much they made on a certain shift, they will usually give you a number: how much they made in tips for the day. However, that server/bartender is leaving out their hourly wage. When you ask a cook or dishwasher, they will calculate their hours and multiply it by their hourly wage. The entirety of a cook’s compensation is that which was left out of a server/bartender’s assessment. And this exposes the huge disparity of income between front and back of the house employees that is real and is damaging. Servers and bartenders generally make about three times that of their counterparts in the kitchen and current policies ensure that this will continue.

Cooks’ wages have always been higher than minimum wage and they need to be in order to survive in this area. For context, the monthly salary of a minimum wage earner (at the current $13/hr) is about $2250, while the median monthly rent of a 1-bedroom apt is around $3500. The market rate for cooks has hovered a few bucks over the minimum wage and hasn’t changed all that much over the years. It may have gone up more (especially as living costs in the area have risen) but owners’ ability to increase it have been hampered by other rising costs, including the minimum wage hike that is blind to the not-insignificant income some restaurant employees receive from gratuities.

I want to make clear here that we do not begrudge anyone’s income. And to be even clearer: we are not against a higher minimum wage. In fact, we would like to see a living wage for all our employees. We feel the Minimum Wage Ordinance did not properly tackle the problem of the low wages of the kitchen workers, the lowest wage earners, where it should have been aimed. A hike in the minimum wage increases the wage of those who are already making minimum wage: in reality, those making “minimum wage” are those also making tips, those employees who already have the highest income. Any wage gain for the kitchen (already making a higher-than-minimum-wage) has been done voluntarily and at the mercy of individual restaurants’ financial ability to do so. This is where we need a solution that addresses the problem at hand.

We propose minimum wage reform that addresses this income disparity in a healthy manner. We’d like to shift some of the wages paid by employers from the front to the back of the house. We understand that California is one of a handful of states that does not allow for a “tip exception” (allowance of a lower minimum wage if an employee receives enough tips to make up the difference). That said we still believe it would be a workable solution. We believe the ideal situation would have been to increase the minimum wage for the non-tipped employees, while building into it a lower (or fixed) minimum wage for the tipped employees. Without this offset, the assumption is that restauranteurs are wealthy enough to afford these rising costs. While this may be true in most cases, it certainly is not the case for the small businesses that San Franciscans say they love. The economics of the industry would change dramatically if restaurant owners could slightly lower the FOH (front of house) hourly wage if and only if an equal wage hike were paid to the BOH (back of house. This kind of wage policy would shift income from the top earners to the lower earners in a way that doesn’t threaten the industry itself.

It’s true that policy as it is written will raise cooks’ wages when the wage increases are implemented (an additional $1/hour hike is coming in July). It’s also true that the industry hasn’t fallen apart just yet. We can wait until the calamities hit and deal with the aftermath. But we in the industry are seeing major problems hit already (a shortage of cooks, a struggle to provide a living wage to all employees and a shrinking profit margin) that are only going to eventually reach a crisis point. Let’s implement smarter policy to ensure everyone’s success.

]]>#CraftBeeringIsCaring: Supporting Those Who Support the Communityhttp://monkskettle.com/craftbeeringiscaring-supporting-those-who-support-the-community/
Wed, 21 Jun 2017 18:00:12 +0000http://monks-kettle-staging.flywheelsites.com/?p=1531It is remarkable how much good beer (and I mean very good beer) is available to a beer buyer right now. I could write up at least 3 or 4 stellar draft lists (each 29 taps with a broad range of styles like at Monk’s) that maintain top quality without repeating a beer. There is […]

]]>It is remarkable how much good beer (and I mean very good beer) is available to a beer buyer right now. I could write up at least 3 or 4 stellar draft lists (each 29 taps with a broad range of styles like at Monk’s) that maintain top quality without repeating a beer. There is a reason that this is so. The craft beer industry’s success over the last decade is a direct result of the collaborative spirit that has been a prevailing force in the industry. Those on the forefront of this wave of growth (Vinnie, Tomme, Lauren, Greg, Jeffers and Matt—to name a few) were trailblazers; more importantly, they left breadcrumbs behind to grow the industry through its quality. But we are at a crossroads and major potential dangers are showing their head. One huge risk is a market correction due to saturation, in which even some good breweries don’t survive a crowded market. Another danger is more systemic and has the potential to do major and lasting harm to the industry on the whole: monopolistic ownership.

We realize that we, as a retailer, have a responsibility to ensure that we are doing our part to support the greater craft beer community. When we opened (almost) ten years ago, my job as a beer buyer was to seek out and get access to the best beer: to ensure the quality of the beer on the beer list. Now, with the dramatic shifts in brewery ownership, it has become my responsibility to ensure the quality of the company behind the beer as well. We retailers, when creating our beer lists, declare our support for the producers represented. It is incumbent upon us to ensure that our support is reserved for the companies whose ethics match our own. As such, we at the Monk’s Kettle are recommitting ourselves to solely supporting companies that respect competition and whose business practices benefit the industry on the whole.

Over the last few years, shifts in ownership have taken a variety of forms: outright acquisitions, mergers, partnerships, partial ownership buyouts and private equity investments. It has at times been difficult to sort through the various ownership configurations and draw a clear line. That said, there has been one company that has stood above all in their predatory and imperial practices: Anheuser-Busch InBev, the multi-national corporation that last month essentially shut off the supply of South African hops to American breweries that are not Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) is a company that was created in 2008 when the Belgian conglomerate InBev (itself a merger of the Belgian Interbrew and the Brazilian AmBev) acquired Anheuser-Busch. Around this time, the craft beer sector began seeing exponential growth and so the company began a multi-pronged strategy to gain market share and suppress competition with craft. This tactic has included a multitude of mergers and acquisitions of breweries, hop farms and distribution channels to gain greater leverage and control of shelf space and tap handles.

The company’s first major acquisition of smaller craft breweries was Chicago’s Goose Island in 2011. It was a sale that jolted the industry and first exposed the company’s plan to gain market share through acquisitions, a strategy that continues to this day. The company’s next tectonic move was last year’s $100 billion merger with SAB Miller, which made it the largest beer company in the world. Included in that deal was SAB Miller’s subsidiary company, SAB Hop Farms, which supplies South African hops to ZA Hops, the American hop importer of South African hops. In early May (2017) it was announced that, “due to low yield,” the South African hops the farm harvests will be reserved for the ABI brands that use them and no surplus will be supplied to ZA Hops.

We feel this move crossed a line and presents a clear and present threat to the industry on the whole. This move clearly shows the very real dangers in this type of monopolistic ownership: a single company, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, is able to cut off the supply of valuable raw ingredients to all of its competitors. The effects of this can be seen locally, since several brewers with whom we work have used South African hops the last few years. Cellarmaker Brewing was one of the very first US brewers to use South African hops, while others like Alvarado Street and Temescal followed their lead; Alvarado Street is already out of these hops, while the others’ stock of them are dwindling with every use. ABI’s practices are dangerous and we fear for what comes next. Who is to say that the strategy of ingredient control does not end with these hops? What if this is another front they’ve opened up that they intend to pursue further and seek control of more popular hops used by the industry?

The local community is also currently affected in another way: the L.A. brewery Golden Road (bought by ABI in 2015) is working on a beer garden in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, a craft beer scene that includes Temescal Brewing, Hog’s Apothecary and others. We have great faith in small businesses, but worry about the long-term effects of competition with the largest beer company in the world. Especially here and now, when the entire industry is struggling with rising costs, a flooded market and a demographic with changing spending habits that are stressed by high living costs.

We felt compelled to speak out when all these things converged. These are somewhat tumultuous times in the craft beer industry, and our interest is in protecting its integrity. We are examining our relationships to ensure that we are supporting those with whom we share business ethics and standards.

On Saturday June 24th, 2017, we are hosting an event that reaffirms our commitment to the local brewers we work with. We as retailers want to work with those that foster a richer community and avoid those whose business practices create disadvantage for others. The event is designed to highlight our devotion to supporting local producers, celebrating their products and bringing attention to the challenges they are currently facing.

Firstly, we will be selling the last of the very few ABI products we have in-house and all the proceeds will be donated to our local brewers guild, San Francisco Brewers Guild. The Belgian brewery Bosteels sold to ABI last fall, and so we will sell the last remaining bottles of Tripel Karmeliet and their Biere de Champagne, DeuS. There will be no more Bourbon County Stout sold here: we’ll miss you—but we can’t in good conscience have you represented on our list any more.
More importantly, however, we want to celebrate the community of local brewers that we work with that are doing really good work. To honor those brewers, we will be pouring the following beers ($1/pint will also go to SF Brewers Guild):

]]>There is Something Afoot…http://monkskettle.com/something-afoot/
Fri, 06 Jan 2017 21:15:32 +0000http://monks-kettle-staging.flywheelsites.com/?p=1519At a party this summer, a guy I met said, “Listen to what people say, but pay attention to what they whisper.” I’d in fact been whispering that it has been a very strange year in the Bay Area restaurant/bar industry. We’ve seen strange levels of business and have heard from far too many people […]

]]>At a party this summer, a guy I met said, “Listen to what people say, but pay attention to what they whisper.” I’d in fact been whispering that it has been a very strange year in the Bay Area restaurant/bar industry. We’ve seen strange levels of business and have heard from far too many people in the industry discussing the same. This has been the whisper of the industry since the spring and it’s now starting to hit the papers

This is not to say that there aren’t places that aren’t doing just fine, or even killing it. We are still seeing places open up by the dozen…for now. But what seems inevitable is an increase in closing announcements from restaurants throughout the region. The truth is that it takes a million things coming together in the right way for a restaurant to succeed, and survival in these parts is dependant on the up or down tick of just a few percentage points. This could easily spell trouble for many. And having personally gone through a closing in 2015, I know how painful it is for everyone involved – ownership, staff, devoted customers, all – and feel compelled to shed a little light on the situation, to discuss it from this perspective.

Two forces are working against the industry right now, one internal and one external:

The internal force is the squeeze restaurants are feeling from the cost of doing business in SF (though the surrounding area’s costs have been catching up in a real hurry the last five years). Contrary to what is often the public perception, profit margins in this industry are extremely small, and these internal costs shrink that margin even more. The end result is that prices go up to cover theoe costs, and suddenly $18 is simply how much a top-notch burger costs in the city. It’s certainly not an impossible market to make a profit, but it’s a hell of a lot trickier to do so than it once was (and it was pretty tough back then).

The external force is the current economic climate in the area. Costs have also been increasing on the personal level throughout the region (million dollar condos, $18 burgers) and from the view of this industry, it just feels like everyone has less money left over than they used to. I say this knowing there are neighborhood-sized exceptions, and it’s not as if no one is going out, but the mere mortals among us are doing significantly less spending now because the bills just got too high. At the end of the day, it’s a smaller pool of money being shared between a lot more places than ever before.

When Umami announced its closing earlier in the summer, they wrote in a statement: “Call us another casualty of a changing San Francisco.” Going further, owner Nate Valentine gave a warning: “the city needs to be very careful not to erode away what made it great to start with.” The San Francisco Bay Area thrives on its culinary tradition—it is an industry that is integral to the fabric of this city and region—and there are major issues to address if we want it to continue to thrive. The recipe right now is not one that will work long-term, and we’d like to see a more sustainable path forged in the future.

In future posts, I want to delve deeper into several aspects of the situation: discuss some of the economic forces at work in the Bay Area restaurant industry, shine a light on the personal side of these larger issues and brainstorm about solutions.

Until then…

Written by Christian Albertson
Edited by Nat Cutler
Proprietors, The Monk’s Kettle